MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Six prisoners held for 12 years at Guantanamo Bay have arrived as refugees in Uruguay, a South American nation with only a tiny Muslim population, amid a renewed push by President Barack Obama to close the prison.

The six men — four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian — were detained as suspected militants with ties to al-Qaida in 2002 but were never charged.

They had been cleared for release since 2009 but could not be sent home and the U.S. struggled to find countries willing to take them.

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica agreed to accept the men as a humanitarian gesture and said they would be given help getting established in a country of 3.3 million with a total Muslim population of perhaps 300 people.

Matilde Campodonico / The Associated PressThree doctors enter the military hospital in Montevideo, Uruguay on Sunday. Six prisoners from Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to Uruguay, the U.S. government said. Uruguayan officials declined comment on the transfers but Adriana Ramos, a receptionist at the hospital, said the six men were being examined there..

“We are very grateful to Uruguay for this important humanitarian action, and to President Mujica for his strong leadership in providing a home for individuals who cannot return to their own countries,” U.S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan said.

Among those transferred was Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a 43-year-old Syrian on a long-term hunger strike protesting his confinement who was at the centre of a legal battle in U.S. courts over the military’s use of force-feeding.

The Pentagon identified the other Syrians sent to Uruguay on Saturday as Ali Husain Shaaban, 32; Ahmed Adnan Ajuri, 37; and Abdelahdi Faraj, 33. Also released were Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, 35, and 49-year-old Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi of Tunisia.

Uruguay’s government issued a statement confirming the arrival, repeating the text of a letter from Mujica to Obama saying they had been subject to “an atrocious kidnapping” at Guantanamo and urging the U.S. to end its 53-year-old embargo of Cuba.

Cori Crider, a lawyer for Dhiab from the human rights group Reprieve, praised Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla who himself was imprisoned for more than a decade.

“Despite years of suffering, Mr. Dhiab is focused on building a positive future for himself in Uruguay,” said Crider, who travelled to Montevideo to meet with him and was concerned about his health after the hunger strike. “He looks forward to being reunited with his family and beginning his life again.”

Despite years of suffering, Mr. Dhiab is focused on building a positive future for himself in Uruguay

Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer for Faraj, said he was “deeply grateful” to Uruguay for accepting the prisoner.

“By welcoming our client and the others as refugees and free men, not as prisoners, Uruguay has shown that it truly possesses the courage of its convictions,” Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York, said in an interview from Panama.

Uruguay already has taken in 42 Syrian civil war refugees, who arrived in October, and has said it will take about 80 more.

Matilde Campodonico / The Associated PressA horse cart passes by the military hospital in Montevideo, Uruguay on Sunday.

They are coming to what may be the only country in the Americas without an Islamic mosque, said Tamar Chaky, director of the Islamic Cultural Organization of Uruguay. He promised that the local Muslim community would welcome them, but said there had been no contact with the government.

The U.S. has now transferred 19 prisoners out of Guantanamo this year, all but one of them within the last 30 days, and 136 remain, the lowest number since shortly after the prison opened in January 2002. Officials say several more releases are expected by the end of the year.

Obama administration officials had been frustrated that the transfer took so long, blaming outgoing Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel for not approving the move sooner. They said after Mujica agreed to take the men in January, the deal sat for months on Hagel’s desk, awaiting his signature as required by law. The Pentagon didn’t send the notification of the transfer to Congress until July.

By then, the transfer had become an issue in Uruguay’s presidential election and officials there decided to postpone it until after the vote. Tabare Vazquez, a member of Mujica’s ruling coalition and a former president, won a runoff election on Nov. 30.

Upon taking office, Obama had pledged to close the prison but was blocked by Congress, which banned sending prisoners to the U.S. for any reason, including trial, and placed restrictions on sending them abroad.

The U.S. now holds 67 men at Guantanamo who have been cleared for release or transfer but, like the six sent to Uruguay, can’t go home because they might face persecution, a lack of security or some other reason.

Prisoners from Guantanamo have been sent around the world but this weekend’s transfer was the largest group sent to the Western Hemisphere. Four Guantanamo prisoners were sent to Bermuda in 2009 and two were sent to El Salvador in 2012 but have since left.

It’s baaaaackThe long-gun registry stands as “an almost perfect symbol of rural and small-town alienation,” Postmedia’s Michael Den Tandtargues. He can only assume Thomas Mulcair and his advisers were aware of this when the NDP leader announced this week, out of the blue, that he would revive the registry in some form or another. As such Den Tandt can only assume the NDP is essentially writing off “Ontario beyond Toronto” in a baldfaced “play for Quebec votes.” That’s good news for the Conservatives, naturally. But Justin Trudeau has a more delicate operation on his hands, Den Tandt argues: He wants those Quebec votes too. But “if he “allow[s] himself to slip back into reflexive urban-toned anti-gun rhetoric, he will be playing directly into the Conservatives’ hands.”

There are any number of downsides to the move, but Mulcair might as well exploit this wedge issue, Tasha Kheiriddin argues at iPolitics, because if he can’t hold on to his Quebec seats he “can forget about retaining official opposition status, let alone having a shot at government.” She suspects this is also part of Mulcair’s battle with Trudeau “for the title of Women’s Best Friend.” “Pledging to bring back some type of gun registration gives Mulcair a chance to talk about women’s safety in a more positive and proactive light” than the unseemly spat regarding Massimo Pacetti and Scott Andrews.

In Le Devoir, Josée Boileau reminds Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard of his obligation to introduce a provincial long-gun registry, as the feds are too ignorant to appreciate its self-evident utility.

Provincial affairsIn La Presse, André Pratte asks: If Quebecers are so environmentally conscious and oil-averse, then why are so many of them freaking out about modest tax increases on gasoline and large engines? Shouldn’t they be welcoming them?

Maurice Richard and Jean Béliveau each symbolized a different aspect of pre-Quiet Revolution Quebec, Mathieu Bock-Côté argues in Le Journal de Montréal: Richard had the “energy of the humiliated,” of someone who decide “enough is enough”; while Béliveau’s nobility and grace reminds Quebecers that the old days weren’t all illiteracy, misery and prayer.

So it’s sort of like the difference between Wendel Clark and Doug Gilmour. No, wait, that doesn’t work at all.

University of Alberta law prof Eric Adams, writing in TheGlobe and Mail, urges Alberta Premier Jim Prentice to abandon the idea that “conflicting” rights are in play in the controversy over forcing Catholic school boards to allow gay-straight alliance clubs. The Premier “is right … that freedom of religion means the freedom to believe in that which others may find objectionable,” says Adams. But that right “can co-exist without real conflict” with, for example, gay rights. “School boards can function, Catholic schools can religiously educate, parents can make informed decisions and students can voluntary form inclusive equality-seeking groups,” he assures us.

That sounds lovely. Except the Catholic church believes homosexual activity is “intrinsically disordered.” Alberta may be able to bash out a compromise solution in 2014. But in the long run, we don’t see how a religious position like that can coexist with public funding.

‘Round OttawaPaul Wells of Maclean’s reviews Stephen Harper’s announcement of $200-million a year in funding for post-secondary research: Worthwhile, but hardly earth shattering. That’s roughly “the amount the Commonwealth of Virginia spent on research over two recent years; or the amount Mort Zuckerman donated to Columbia University in 2012, or the amount philanthropist Geoff Cumming and the Alberta government recently gave to the University of Calgary,” Wells notes. It doesn’t change the fact Canada is “seriously underperforming” against competitor nations. And what’s worse, the funding is contingent on private co-funding and restricted to “priority research areas.” “Thomas Edison would have had little luck inventing the light bulb if he had needed co-funding from candlemakers,” Wells observes.

The Globe‘s editorialists complain that nobody knows what the hell is going on at the Canadian Wheat Board because neither it nor the government will so much as release up-to-date financial statements — and in that environment, all sorts of selloff rumours re swirling, unanswered. “As long as it’s a public company,” the Globe uncontroversially argues, the CWB should be an open book.

Oh, and the Globe‘s Jeffrey Simpson files another stultifying column on Uruguayan marijuana reform from Montevideo. We think one would probably have sufficed.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay’s Senate approved the world’s first national marketplace for legal marijuana Tuesday, an audacious and risky experiment that puts the government in charge of growing, selling and using a drug that is illegal almost everywhere else.

The vote was 16 to 13, with the governing Broad Front majority united in favour. The plan now awaits the signature of President Jose Mujica, who wants the market to begin operating next year.

Two-thirds of Uruguayans oppose a government-run marijuana industry, according to opinion polls. But Mujica said he’s convinced the global drug war is a failure and feels bureaucrats can do a better job of containing addictions and beating organized crime than police, soldiers and prison guards.

“Today is an historic day. Many countries of Latin America, and many governments, will take this law as an example,” cheered Sen. Constanza Moreira, voting with the Broad Front majority.

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Uruguay’s drug control agency will have 120 days, until mid-April, to draft regulations imposing state control over the entire market for marijuana, from seed to smoke.

Everyone involved must be licensed and registered, with government monitors enforcing limits such as the 40 grams a month any adult will be able to buy at pharmacies for any reason or the six marijuana plants that license-holders will be allowed to grow at home.

Congress’ lower house approved the bill in late July, and senators rejected all proposed amendments, enforcing party discipline before Tuesday’s debate to assure the outcome.

Former Health Minister Alfredo Solari, a Colorado Party senator, warned Tuesday that children and adolescents will more easily get their hands on pot and that “the effects of this policy on public health will be terrible.”

But Sen. Roberto Conde, a former deputy foreign minister with the Broad Front, said marijuana “is already established in Uruguay. It’s a drug that is already seen as very low risk and enormously easy to get.”

Mujica, a 78-year-old former leftist guerrilla who spent years in jail while many others experimented with marijuana, said the goal is to reduce drug use. A government ad campaign launched Friday makes the same point, warning of pot smoking’s dangers to human health.

“This is not liberalization of marijuana. It can be consumed within certain parameters established by law. I think it will reduce consumption,” Sen. Luis Gallo, a retired doctor who favoured the bill, told The Associated Press.

The government got help from a national TV campaign and other lobbying efforts supporting by billionaire currency speculator and philanthropist George Soros and his Open Society Foundation and Drug Policy Alliance. In September, Mujica met with Soros and billionaire David Rockefeller in New York to explain his “experiment.”

“I would say to Mr. Soros, to Mr. Rockefeller, and to the president of the republic that you don’t experiment with the Uruguayans. We are not guinea pigs,” Colorado Party Sen. Pedro Bordaberry said Tuesday.

Hannah Hetzer, a lobbyist for the Alliance who moved to Montevideo for the campaign, watched closely from the Senate gallery.

“Uruguay is seeking an alternative to a failed model. I think that this is the beginning of the end of a prohibitionist model and the beginning of a more intelligent focus,” she said.

A story of remarkable human endurance in the snow-covered Andes has taken a somber turn.

Authorities said Monday that a plumber from Uruguay who survived through the winter after disappearing along Chile’s high-altitude border with Argentina was fleeing from the law.

An emaciated Raul Gomez was rescued Sunday by an Argentine helicopter crew and was recovering in a hospital more than four months after he was last heard from.

Repeated search efforts had been called off due to bad weather after failing to turn up any sign of him amid the snow-covered peaks.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwjgTf-UDao&w=620&h=465]

It wasn’t clear at first why a 58-year-old motorcyclist with no apparent mountaineering experience was so determined to walk across the Chilean frontier. Gomez had travelled to Argentina and then Chile to meet up with other motorcyclists.

An official in the Chilean prosecutor’s office in Santiago confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday that Gomez is wanted in Chile’s capital for investigation of child sex abuse allegations. A warrant was issued for his arrest on April 22, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity per office policy.

Gomez, 58, was spotted by Argentine officials on Sunday who were flying into the remote mountain area by helicopter to check snow levels.

Telam / The Associated PressGomez with relatives at a hospital in San Juan Sunday.

He’d been sheltering in a mountain refuge 9,300 ft. above sea level, in the shadow of Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside the Himalayas, when ran out of the hut and managed to attract their attention.

“He was very happy,” said Walter Gallardo, the pilot of the helicopter. “He was hungry and had been very anxious, but he was fine.”

Gomez had survived by eating rats he caught in a homemade trap, as well as raisins and sugar left in the hut.

Everybody knows him in Bella Union, where he never had troubles with anybody

“He lost 20 kilos. He apparently fed himself with mice and an owl or two,” Hospital Rawson spokesman Rodrigo Belert told the AP.

Gomez, a health worker and part-time plumber, set off from Chile in May on his motorbike. He was from the far northern Uruguayan town of Bella Union — where Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay meet.

But the motorbike broke down, and on May 11 — with winter drawing in — he sent a text message to his family saying that he planned to complete his journey on foot.

On May 19 his family raised the alarm through Interpol in Uruguay, but the Argentine authorities did not receive the news until June 29, when his daughter Paula called the police in San Juan, asking for help.

AP Photo/Diario El Zonda, Agustin MoyaThe 58-year-old man spent four months lost while trying to walk across the Andean mountains.

In Gomez’s hometown of Bella Union, Uruguay, the man’s mother, Irma Cincunegui, told the AP she doesn’t believe the allegations against him.

“Raul is a good, hard-working man,” she said. “Everybody knows him in Bella Union, where he never had troubles with anybody.”

Gomez was finally discovered on Sunday at the Ingeniero Sardina refuge, a small cabin 14,760 feet (4,500 meters) above sea level, by a pilot and two state water experts who had flown up to measure snow levels. He told them he took shelter in the refuge after getting disoriented by the Southern Hemisphere’s winter snowstorms.

He had been carrying a small amount of food, and said he ate other meager supplies that mountaineers had left in the refuge. When that ran out, he told his rescuers, he survived by capturing small animals.

He lost 20 kilos. He apparently fed himself with mice and an owl or two

On Monday, Gomez was joined by his two daughters and wife in the intensive care unit of the hospital in San Juan province.

“He’s recuperating well and shows no sign of serious organ damage, but he’s recovering from very severe malnutrition,” Belert said.

The Chilean attorney general’s office must now consider whether to seek his extradition once he’s healthy enough to travel again.

Belert said hospital authorities had not received any communications from the Chilean government.

“The patient could get released shortly, but we’re waiting to see if some official information arrives,” Belert said.

AFP/Getty ImagesRaul Gomez Cincunegui being rescued Sunday.

Ignacio Capandeguy, Uruguay’s consul in Argentina’s Cordoba province, also told the AP that he hadn’t seen any official information from Chile and that Uruguayan authorities are focused on the man’s health.

Gomez’s mother called her son “a warrior,” and said she “always thought that he was alive.”

Why did he risk crossing such a high-altitude frontier with winter coming and hardly any equipment or supplies?

“Because he’s brave, and daring,” she said. “Every vacation he would grab his motorcycle and take off on an adventure. Once he took his wife on the bike to Chile, but she said she would never make one of those trips again.”

Gomez was called an “excellent companion” by a co-worker, Elias Acosta, at the state water treatment plant in Bella Union. “We’re very happy that they found him.”

Files from The Telegraph

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/10/raul-gomez-who-survived-four-months-lost-in-the-andes-accused-of-child-sex-abuse/feed/4stdAfter being found in a remote mountain cabin, Uruguayan Raul Gomez is carried from a helicopter and placed on stretcher in San Juan, Argentina, Sunday.Telam / The Associated PressAP Photo/Diario El Zonda, Agustin MoyaAFP/Getty ImagesUruguay poised to become first in the world to legalize marijuanahttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/02/uruguay-poised-to-become-first-in-the-world-to-legalize-marijuana/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/02/uruguay-poised-to-become-first-in-the-world-to-legalize-marijuana/#commentsFri, 02 Aug 2013 11:00:30 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=124823

Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a daily round-up of quality punditry from across the globe. Today: Potheads from around the world could be booking their flights to Montevideo.

That’s if new legislation wending its way through the Uruguayan parliament makes it onto the statute book — as seems likely.

Legislators in the lower house voted Wednesday to legalize the growing and consumption of one of the world’s most popular illegal drugs, an initiative backed by President Jose Mujica. The government will licence and enforce rules for the production, distribution and sale of marijuana for adult consumers.

Proponents argue putting the government at the centre of a legal marijuana industry is worth trying because the global war on drugs had been a costly and bloody failure. Displacing illegal dealers through licensed pot sales could save money and lives. (It’s a view several other Latin American leaders support.)

They also hope to eliminate a legal contradiction in Uruguay, where it has been legal to use pot but against the law to sell it, buy it, produce it or possess even one marijuana plant.

In an analysis piece, Ignacio de los Reyes, a BBC Mundo correspondent, notes the move goes against the U.S.’s war on drugs and conservatives, such as the Roman Catholic Church, who oppose its use on moral grounds.

If approved by the Senate as expected, this will become a groundbreaking law, but not only for Uruguay. For decades, drug trafficking has caused thousands of deaths throughout Latin America in countries like Mexico or Colombia.

Legalisation has long been taboo for governments who aligned with the U.S. anti-drug policy, heavily dependent on law enforcement and prohibition.

This is still considered the orthodox approach and it is supported by conservatives and the Catholic Church.

But more and more leaders, like Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina and former Mexican president Vicente Fox, are asking to discuss decriminalizing some drugs in an attempt to undermine the cartels.

In a posting, inevitably, on the Weed Blog, Johnny Green, an Oregon marijuana activist, says Uruguayans seem to be warming to the plan — though this may well have been the result of being bombarded with pro-pot ads.

A national TV ad campaign — featuring a mother, a doctor and explaining the measure’s benefits on public safety and health — has reached hundreds of thousands of Uruguayans.

Regulación Responsable(“Responsible Regulation”), the coalition of prominent Uruguayan organizations and individuals that support the initiative, has held events around the country, sparking debate at all levels. LGBT, women’s rights, health, student, environmental and human rights organizations have all united to support Regulación Responsable, alongside trade unions, doctors, musicians, lawyers, athletes, writers, actors and academics.

Also on side is Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the former Brazilian president who heads the Global Commission on Drug Policy and believes the war on drugs is an expensive bust.

Two years ago, in my capacity as chairman of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, I made a public call for the decriminalization of drug use and for experimentation with models of legal regulation. I and my colleagues did so recognizing that drug prohibition had failed on many levels.

For too long, it has represented a waste of precious government resources, which has had few benefits for public safety and health. We encouraged experimentation with legal regulation because we believe it will undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard health and security. For this reason, I believe the current proposal to regulate marijuana in Uruguay is worthy of serious consideration.

OTTAWA — The prime minister heads to South America this week to suss out membership in a new trading bloc he has been working to join for many years.

The Pacific Alliance was formed by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru in 2011 and Canada took a spot on the sidelines the next year, along with several other countries as observers.

This week, alliance leaders will meet in Cali, Colombia, and be joined by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as well as leaders from other observer nations.

“This will be the first time the prime minister has had the opportunity to participate in this forum, to experience the forum, to see what it has to offer,” said Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for the prime minister.

The goal of the nascent alliance is to tear down what economic borders remain between their countries, creating an integrated market to rival and compete both internationally and regionally with that of Mercosur, the trading bloc created in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

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Alliance countries are already an economic powerhouse: according to the World Trade Organization, together they exported about $534-billion in 2011, compared to about $355 billion from Mercosur.

Bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and the four alliance countries totalled $39-billion in 2012, compared with $9.7-billion the year before in trade with Mercosur.

The Conservative government declared a stronger relationship with the Americas as a foreign policy priority in 2007 and has been wooing them ever since, ramping up its enthusiasm for ties with the region since its economies sailed through the global economic downturn in 2008.

But Canada already has free trade agreements with all four alliance countries and is involved in negotiations for the much broader Trans Pacific Partnership, which includes them as well as Asian countries, New Zealand and the United States.

That’s raised questions about why joining this new alliance is something that Canada needs and has the resources to tackle.

Even pro-trade Tories raised this question at recent hearings on the alliance in the House of Commons.

“Where I’m coming from is that we already have relationships with all of these countries,” said Tory MP Ed Holder in March.

“We don’t need to do this, but maybe we do. What I’m looking for is the argument for Canada to do more than just sit at the table and watch.”

Harper’s participation in the meeting is about figuring that out, said MacDougall.

We do have strong relationships with the four original members, and with some of the other observer countries so it makes sense for us to explore more ways to further strengthen that relationship while we’re also pressing on the Trans Pacific Partnership, which includes another set of countries

“From our perspective, there is no point picking one over the other, it’s a question of pursuing on all avenues and all fronts,” MacDougall said.

“We do have strong relationships with the four original members, and with some of the other observer countries so it makes sense for us to explore more ways to further strengthen that relationship while we’re also pressing on the Trans Pacific Partnership, which includes another set of countries.”

Among the issues being explored by the alliance are the removal of visa requirements for is members, something that would pose a challenge to Canada’s ongoing efforts to tighten up borders by imposing visa restrictions on many countries, including those in the alliance.

The alliance also wants to strengthen security co-operation.

Canada has tried this once before with Mexico, in the form of the security and prosperity partnership with the United States, a deal that collapsed in 2009 to be replaced by the bilateral Beyond the Border plan with just the United States.

Canada’s relationship with the Americas has been framed mostly in economic terms, though Canada insists part of its Americas strategy is also increasing democratic governance and security in the region.

Some observers have said those two planks aren’t getting the same attention.

“The record of action to date has been narrowly focused on free trade agreements and the protection of corporate interests and investments at the expense of deep engagement on such important issues as development, security, corporate accountability, democratic governance, and human rights,” Sheila Katz of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation told the House of Commons committee in April.

For example, as part of a recently-signed free trade deal with Colombia, the two countries agreed to table reports about the effect the deal has on human rights.

The second such report was May 15, 2013 due last week but since the House of Commons wasn’t sitting, it couldn’t be tabled, MacDougall said.

It’s unlikely to appear before Harper returns from his trip.

Prior to arriving in Colombia, he will travel to Peru for bilateral meetings with that country’s president.

MADRID — Diego Forlan is to leave La Liga club Atletico Madrid after four seasons and will join Serie A side Inter Milan, the Uruguay striker announced on Monday.

A former La Liga topscorer with both Villarreal and Atletico, the former Manchester United forward was voted best player at the World Cup finals in South Africa last year as Uruguay reached the last four.

While Inter have yet to confirm a deal has been agreed, the Copa America winner’s arrival is good news for coach Gian Piero Gasperini, who has lost forwards Samuel Eto’o and Goran Pandev to Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala and Napoli respectively.

“Farewells are always hard, because it has been four years plus the three at Villarreal and now…I will be leaving behind people’s kindness, which I will never forget,” Forlan said at a news conference in the Spanish capital.

“I am looking forward very much to rejuvenating myself, it’s all new and it’s where you find motivation because the challenges are greater,” he added.

“You don’t often get a chance to go to Inter at the age of 32 and I hope I can live up to the expectations.”

Forlan helped Atletico to a Europa League triumph in the 2009-10 season, when they also reached the final of Spain’s King’s Cup.

His form dipped last season and Atletico announced last week they had given him permission to negotiate a transfer.

However, he was as sharp as ever at international level as he helped Uruguay win the Copa America this year, scoring twice in their 3-0 final win over Paraguay.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Diego Forlan scored twice and Uruguay won the Copa America for a record 15th time after beating Paraguay 3-0 Sunday.

Luis Suarez also scored for Uruguay, which followed up a semifinal appearance at the 2010 World Cup by winning South America’s championship for the first time since 1995.

At roughly 3.5 million people — about the population of Connecticut — Paraguay has the lowest population of teams in the tournament.

Argentina and Brazil were upset in the quarterfinals of the Copa. Uruguay ousted Argentina on penalties and Paraguay eliminated Brazil, also in a shootout.

Argentina has won the title 14 times, Brazil eight. Brazil had won four of the past five titles.

Uruguay was the clear favourite going into the final, wrapping up a tournament filled with surprises.

Not only had Brazil and Argentina been sent home early, but Venezuela reached the third-place match on Saturday before losing 4-1 to Peru. Those two countries have been the weakest in the region in recent years, but they suddenly look formidable going into regional World Cup qualifying later this year.

Uruguay’s squad featured 20 of the 23 players it took to the World Cup a year ago, showing teamwork and unselfish play with none of the vast star power of Argentina or Brazil.

Suarez gave Uruguay the lead in a match it dominated in the opening minutes. Receiving a pass in the area, the Liverpool forward beat defender Dario Veron to score from a deflected left-footed shot that went in off the far post behind goalkeeper Justo Villar.

Uruguay could have even have led in the second minute, when Villar stopped Diego Lugano’s point-blank header.

Forlan, who was voted the best player at last year’s World Cup, made it 2-0 by lashing a left-footed shot from 12 yards that left Villar flat-footed. He was set up after teammate Egidio Arevalo Rios had stolen the ball from a Paraguay player near midfield.

The Atletico Madrid striker had not scored in his 12 previous matches for the national team.

Sebastian Eguren almost made it 3-0 in the 74th, foiled when Villar stuck out his left arm with the ball headed for the net.

Forlan scored the final goal in the 90th, taking a pass from Suarez and scoring into the far corner.

Paraguay, which seldom threatened, play without injured forward Roque Santa Cruz and winger Aureliano Torres. Paraguay Coach Gerardo Martino and top assistant Jorge Pautasso were suspended from the match after being sent off for repeatedly arguing with the referee in Wednesday’s win over Venezuela.

Martino, from Argentina, is seen as a leading contender to take over Argentina’s national team. The Argentine federation was to meet Monday and decide on the future of coach Sergio Batista, who is reported to be on the way out.

Paraguay won Copa America titles in 1979 and 1953 and reached the second round at the 2010 World Cup.

Today in our 2010 in Sport series, we’re looking back on the year in soccer, from South Africa to Toronto. Click here to read Eric Koreen’s take on the controversial World Cup final between Spain and The Netherlands.

Here, Eric dives into some of the Beautiful Game’s other memorable moments.

Cheaters prosper
In basketball, a shot that is blocked on its downward momentum that is heading for the basket is good for two points. In hockey, a penalty-shot offence on a skater heading for an empty net results in a goal. But when Uruguay’s Luis Suarez knocked away a sure goal — off of a header from Ghana’s Dominic Adiyiah — with both of his hands, no goal was awarded. Suarez was kicked out of the game, but Ghana, by rule, was awarded a penalty kick in extra time of the World Cup quarter-final. Asamoah Gyan’s kick hit the crossbar, and Uruguay eventually won in penalty kicks. It might be time for a rule change, FIFA.

How do you say that?
It was the announcement that sent everybody searching for pronouncement guides: Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Does that rhyme with “mutter” or “guitar”? Whatever the answer — and even NPR could not settle on one — it was not a decision that sat well with the soccer community, nor was the same-day decision to award Russia with the event in 2018. “Some people will not like it because of the racism in Russia and I hope everyone knows about it,” Ghana’s Haminu Draman told the BBC of playing in Russia. Meanwhile, Qatar was awarded the event despite being a country of about 1.7 million people and unbearable heat. Allegations of FIFA’s crookedness marred both December decisions.

The Reds all about green
If the love affair between Toronto FC and its fans is to continue, the fans have made something clear: The club better start giving something back in return. With Toronto FC out of the Major League Soccer playoffs for a fourth straight year, a pocket of the club’s most-ardent supporters wore green instead of red to TFC’s Oct. 16 game against Columbus, and watched in silence. The club’s dismal on-pitch performance and an announcement of a 30% hike for season tickets were the reasons. As 2011 begins, the club is looking for its second general manager and fifth head coach in five years.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/12/24/2010-in-sport-soccers-three-for-the-road/feed/0stdUruguay's Luis Suarez handles the ball at the goal line during extra time in the 2010 World Cup quarter-final soccer match against Ghana at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg July 2, 2010.Forlan World Cup’s best player, Spain best teamhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2010/07/11/forlan-world-cups-best-player-spain-best-team/
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By George Johnson, Postmedia News

JOHANNESBURG — The odyssey began a month and 64 matches ago, amid largely unfounded fears of violence and unpreparedness, ending where it started, at Soccer City Stadium in front of a capacity crowd and in a blaze of pre kickoff showmanship.

Seventy-three months of buildup since winning the bid and this conflicted nation is now left to work off the hangover of hosting a FIFA World Cup.

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Here, with Sunday’s ill-tempered final now in the books, is a personal view of the best and worst of South Africa 2010:

Best player Diego Forlan, Uruguay, who was rightfully awarded the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player on Sunday.Best team Spain. For obvious reasons.Best young player German midfielder Thomas Mueller. Only 20, he should have the world at his feet four years from now in Brazil. Mueller took home the Golden Boot award after scoring five goals and adding three assists.Best performance by a team Germany’s utter annihilation of Argentina in the quarter-finals. Staunch in defence, lighting on the counter, the 4-0 score line left Argentine coach Diego Maradona a broken man.Worst performance by a team North Korea, humiliated by a converted touchdown at the hands of the Portuguese in the group phase.Best stadium Durban’s Moses Mabhida, hands down. Great sightlines, that crazy tram (not in operation during the World Cup) that can transport visitors to the apex of its distinctive arch. Add lighting that makes a game seem to be being played in high definition and it makes for a simply wonderful viewing experience.Worst stadium Ellis Park, Johannesburg. Deep in the heart of boarded-up, grisly-looking, please-car-don’t-break-down-here, Joburg. Hard to get into, dangerous to get out of. Urban decay doesn’t begin to describe it.Best city Cape Town and Durban, tie.Worst city Johannesburg.Worst FIFA muck-up Frank Lampard’s ghost goal in the round of 16 loss to Germany. Here we are, in the 21st century, and FIFA has yet to institute goal-line or video replay technology to help bail already-stressed officials out of potentially damning situations.Worst FIFA muck-up II Calling for cleared air space for the fleets of VIP jets to land in Durban prior to the semi-final between Spain and Germany, causing utter chaos in the skies and forcing many real fans, who forked over a goodly amount of money to see a highly anticipated match, to miss out entirely. Shameful.Best South African expression Sharp, sharp! Meaning: That’s cool.Best fans The Dutch Oranje.Worst blunder Goalkeeper Robert Green’s tragi/comedy howler on Clint Dempsey’s shot to draw level in the USA/England clash. An overrated England side never recovered.Best goal Dutch captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s 30-yard left footed cannon that started the Dutch off on their 3-2 semifinal victory over surprising Uruguay.Best young team Germany.Worst old team Italy.Worst yellow card The hand ball yellow that cost Germany the services of Mueller for the mouth-watering showdown against Spain. With the outcome beyond dispute in Die Mannschaft’s mauling of the shell-shocked Argentines, Lionel Messi makes a hash of a chest-down and the ball strikes Mueller on the left arm in the 84th minute. Maybe he moved toward it, maybe not. Whatever, Uzbekistani referee Ravshan Irmatov theatrically brandishes the German star’s second yellow in two games, forcing him to miss the semifinal. A little common sense, if you please. Appalling.Best game Tie. Ghana-Uruguay, the Luis Suarez volleyball bump off the goal-line, followed by Asamoah Gyan’s penalty miss on the last kick of extra time and the Black Stars’ subsequent controversial exit from the tournament on spot kicks; and the crazy Slovakia-Italy final group game, won 3-2 by the Slovaks, that sent the defending champions slinking back to the boot in disgrace.Worst game Fierce competition here but we opt for Japan-Paraguay, round of 16 in Pretoria and won (if you want to call it that) by the South Americans on penalties following a 0-0 draw. Dreary, dreary, DREARY.Best save Suarez.Worst save Suarez.Best Maradona quote “No! I like women! I’m dating Veronica. She is 31. She is blond. She is very pretty! Don’t start rumours about me. I may have my weaknesses towards some of my players, but that’s normal.” — Maradona, when asked about serial hugging his players.Best Maradona quote II “Who says [Martin] Demichelis is playing badly? Whoever says that must be Andrea Bocelli [the blind opera singer].”Best Maradona quote III “I’m going to be 50 on 30 October, and this is the hardest thing I have had to go through since the day I retired from football. It was like a smack in the face from Muhammad Ali. I am drained of strength.” — … after being eliminated by Germany.Best coach Tie. Bert van Marwijk of the Netherlands convinced a group of players and, in the final analysis, a nation obsessed with ‘beautiful’ soccer that sturdiness and structure count for as much as panache. Joachim Loew of Germany moulded a group of youthful players into a side capable of dismantling Argentina and reaching the semis. Look out, Brazil 2014.Worst act of petulance Cristiano Ronaldo, between sobs and hissy fits, spitting at a TV cameraman on the pitch as Portugal crash out to Germany in the quarters. Class — you either got it or you ain’t.Worst act of petulance II Wayne Rooney’s turning to a TV camera, as he and England are being jeered off the pitch following a dismal 0-0 draw against Algeria in Cape Town: “Nice to see your own fans booing you. That’s what loyal support is,”’ he snarled. The next day, the inevitable, insincere grovelling apology.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/07/11/forlan-world-cups-best-player-spain-best-team/feed/0stdUruguay needed Diego Forlan to be brilliant in South Africa. He rose to the occasion.FIFA suspends Uruguay’s Suarez for one match: Updatehttp://news.nationalpost.com/2010/07/03/fifa-mulls-a-harsher-suspension-for-uruguays-suarez/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/07/03/fifa-mulls-a-harsher-suspension-for-uruguays-suarez/#commentsSat, 03 Jul 2010 17:42:37 +0000http://sports.nationalpost.com/?p=3970

By Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press

FIFA has banned Uruguay forward Luis Suarez for one match for his deliberate handball to deny Ghana a winning goal in their World Cup quarterfinal match.

FIFA’s disciplinary committee has ruled that Suarez was guilty of “denying the opposite team a clear goal-scoring opportunity” and imposed just a one-match suspension.

Suarez will serve the ban when Uruguay meets the Netherlands in the semifinals on Tuesday, and would be available for the final if his team advances.

After Suarez’s handball in the last minute of extra time at Soccer City on Friday, Ghana forward Asamoah Gyan missed the ensuing penalty kick and time ran out with the score tied at 1-1. Uruguay won the penalty shootout that followed, 4-2, to advance.

Suarez’s actions spurred debate about whether he should be given a more stern penalty. Luis Suarez’s intentional handball to save a goal could earn him more than a one-game suspension.

FIFA rules call for suspensions of “at least one match” if the panel finds a player guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct toward an opponent.

Suarez swatted away a header by Ghana’s Dominic Adiyiah at the very end of extra time with the score 1-1. Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan missed the penalty with the final kick of the match, hitting the crossbar, as Suarez looked on from the entrance to the players’ tunnel.

Uruguay won the ensuing shootout 4-2.

Suarez, who has three goals in the tournament, said it was “complicated” to be sent off at a World Cup.

“But the way in which I was sent off — truth is, it was worth it,” Suarez said.

Coach Oscar Tabarez said Suarez should be allowed to play in the World Cup final if Uruguay gets there.

“It’s not my business. The disciplinary committee will look at it,” Tabarez said Saturday. “But I think it (a two-match ban) would be extremely exaggerated.”

The handball has also ignited a debate about fair play, but Tabarez defended the Ajax striker.
“I think (calling him a cheat) would be too far-fetched and too twisted,” Tabarez said, recalling that Ghana had already gone through a similar situation.

“In this World Cup, Ghana has already been given a penalty because a player stopped the ball on the goal line,” Tabarez said. “The only difference is that that goal was to equalize against Australia. This time they missed, but that’s not our fault.”

Tabarez said Suarez’s action was a natural reflex.

“To think that Suarez, when he committed the handball, knew what was going to happen afterward would be something superhuman,” the coach said. “The hand of Suarez is the hand of God and the Virgin Mary — that’s how Uruguayans see it.”

Defender Jorge Fucile received his second yellow card against Ghana and is also suspended for the semifinal.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/07/03/fifa-mulls-a-harsher-suspension-for-uruguays-suarez/feed/0stdUruguay's striker Luis Suarez, left, stops the ball with his hand leading to a red card and a penalty for Ghana during the extra-time of 2010 World Cup quarter-final match Uruguay vs. Ghana on July 2, 2010 at AFP Soccer City stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg.World Cup, Day 1 picks: France in tough with Uruguayhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06/10/world-cup-day-1-picks-france-in-tough-with-uruguay/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06/10/world-cup-day-1-picks-france-in-tough-with-uruguay/#commentsThu, 10 Jun 2010 22:17:07 +0000http://sports.nationalpost.com/?p=2465

Here is a preview of Friday’s slate of games at the 2010 FIFA World Cup:

South Africa vs. Mexico, 10 a.m. EST, Johannesburg, Soccer City
With France a prohibitive favourite to top Group A, the host South Africans and Mexico can’t help but consider this a must-win to advance from Group A. The influence of Everton midfielder string-puller Steven Pienaar will be instrumental against a skilled, fast-paced Mexican side that fancies itself an outsider for the title.

More than 90,000 fans, clad in gold and green and tooting those crazy vuvuzelas, will be backing Bafana Bafana and they’ll surely have an influence. But the Mexicans, boosted by the return of influential centre-back Rafael Marquez, are bound to be resolute at the back. And with Carlos Vela ready to make an impact on the world stage, Javier Aguirre’s side will be a handful.

The pick Not to be a spoilsport, but a Mexican side capable of dominating world champions Italy, even in a friendly, should be enough to overcome the rabid African partisans in a nail-biter. Mexico, 1-0.

France vs. Uruguay, 2:30 p.m. EST, Cape Town
The French buildup campaign has been nothing less than a public-relations nightmare. There is Thierry Henry’s double volleyball-bump in extra time of the pivotal qualifier against Ireland, and the underage hooker revelations involving, among others, talisman Franck Ribery.

To top it off, the country’s sports minister, Rama Yade, publicly chided Les Bleus for booking into the $1,100-a-night Pezula Resort Hotel, “Africa’s most luxurious resort,” complete with a private beach on the Western Cape. Now Raymond Domench’s under-fire group has the chance to shut up a few of their critics against a Uruguay side counting heavily on the striking prowess of Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez.

But the expectations are clearly on the French to show they deserve to be among the contenders.

The pick French misery intensifies. Uruguay in the upset, 2-1.

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]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06/10/world-cup-day-1-picks-france-in-tough-with-uruguay/feed/0stdFrance's (L-R) Sidney Govou, Franck Ribery and Mathieu Valbuena run during a training session at the Fields of Dreams stadium in Knysna on June 8, 2010.